Antonio Tarver feels Canelo Alvarez has a chance to beat undisputed light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev at 175 if he can avoid washing through him like Dmitry Bivol did last Saturday night in Riyadh.
Tarver feels that Canelo’s mobility issues could make him easy prey for Beterbiev if he can’t move like Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs) to avoid him. He notes that Canelo is slow on his feet and not nearly as mobile as Bivol.
Beterbiev holds the crown jewels
If Canelo (62-2-2, 39 KOs) can avoid being hit cleanly by Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KOs), he can outbox him if he can do it for a full 12 rounds like the former WBA 175 -lb champion Bivol did last Saturday.
Bivol would have won if he hadn’t moved so much and forgotten to throw punches in the second part of their fight. Canelo will not make that mistake. He will throw and will not try to spoil his way to a controversial victory like Bivol did. He is more of a fighter and will try to block Beterbiev’s shots and counter him all night.
Canelo and his manager Eddy Reynoso have yet to talk about challenging Beterbiev for his undisputed championship next, but if they say they want him next, His Excellency Turki Alalshikh will readily agree.
As much interest as there is in a rematch between Beterbiev and Bivol, there would be far more fan appeal in a Canelo-Beterbiev clash. It will attract more interest, and it will be more exciting to watch because Canelo won’t be moving for 12 rounds trying not to get hit like Bivol.
“I don’t know. Canelo said if Bivol won (against Beterbiev), he would go to Bivol,” Antonio Tarver said. Fighting battles on what Canelo Alvarez needs to do to defeat undisputed light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev.
“I don’t think Eddy (Reynoso) liked that fight the first time, and now Canelo is pushing to go. If Canelo goes to 175 and stops fighting at 168, fine, we like it. But if he’s going to campaign at 168, and with David Benavidez moving up, we’ve completely lost that fight now. As a fight, I would like to see Canelo-Benavidez.”
Canelo has already said he wants $200 million for the Benavidez fight, so it’s a waste of time to keep blowing about that fight happening. If Canelo is going to fight a light heavyweight, he’ll want to fight the best, which means Beterbiev. Sorry, Bivol, but you lost your chance by fighting timidly last Saturday night. You may have to wait your turn if Canelo decides to fight Beterbiev next.
Canelo’s mobility issues
“Now that we set the table with Beterbiev-Canelo,” Tarver said. “Canelo is not as quick-footed as Bivol. Even if he moves, he doesn’t move that much anymore. Again, you hear Bivol say that punching power was still there (against Beterbiev), even though he caught a lot of that stuff on the gloves. Then look at his face. The one or two times he flushed it was devastating. If he could land a few more flush shots, I think he stops him in the distance.”
There were still many of Beterbiev’s shots coming through Bivol, hitting him in the head, and it took a lot of the fight out of him. There was a right hand that Beterbiev hit Bivol with in the seventh round during an exchange that dented his will to fight.
Bivol showed no heart after Beterbiev was hit hard, and the rest of the fight was like a track meet. It wasn’t remotely appealing, other than the tension of wondering if Bivol would be trapped and knocked out.
“Now, with a slower Canelo and a smaller Canelo coming up, I would hate to see Beterbiev land his shots on Canelo,” Tarver said. “He probably won’t have a great partner against Canelo. Canelo is pretty thick. Size-wise, they can look at each other. But with punching power, I just think Beterbiev punches a lot harder, and that’s a challenge for Canelo. He will probably go into that fight as an underdog, but Canelo is a great fighter, an all-time great.”
The oddsmakers could make Canelo the favorite over Beterbiev, just like with Bivol, which was wrong. They will probably make Canelo the favorite because he is the star, and they will base the pick on how Beterbiev fought last Saturday. Let’s face it, this was not vintage Beterbiev.
“I know one thing. A bad night he (Beterbiev) had, which I thought he had, if he fought like he fought Bivol, I think Canelo has a chance,” Tarver said. “If he can’t land solidly on Canelo, Canelo has a chance. If he can avoid a big shot, just like Bivol did, and take him the distance, he has a chance. But if Beterbiev starts cracking, and starts hitting him flush, that’s fight-changing power.”
Canelo has an excellent chance to defeat Beterbiev if he gets the same version of what we saw against Bivol. The only question is whether Canelo can block or duck the shots Beterbiev will throw once he’s pinned against the ropes as he repeatedly did against Bivol.
“If Father Time wasn’t the catalyst in that fight against Bivol, and we won’t know until the rematch. How he (Beterbiev) feels when he goes back to training camp. Can he regain his balance? Can he get his timing more accurate because he missed a lot of punches in that fight that could have changed the game.
“I think Benavidez does it because of the size. He’s a natural light heavyweight, a big guy,” Tarver said when asked who poses the biggest threat to Artur Beterbiev between Canelo and David Benavidez. “He will have length and reach over Beterbiev, and he can box. Yes, if he can avoid getting cracked because, I’m telling you, Beterbiev is still the hardest puncher in the game. I believe in his power until I see otherwise.
“The reason he didn’t get Bivol out there, and maybe it was all Bivol, but he could never get a flush knockout where he really measured himself and got in there. I didn’t see that shot all night. Even the top cut was crazy. It wasn’t broken like you usually see. The two uppercuts they showed highlights of didn’t hit him straight, and it was Beterbiev all night, just missing a little bit,” Tarver said.
Beterbiev did get the upper hand on Bivol, and he had him in a state of pure panic from rounds 8 to 12. Bivol looked scared and stopped fighting. His promoter, Eddie Hearn, was worked up about his loss afterwards, as he watched the Canelo money fight to disappear before his eyes. Bivol got enough shots from Beterbiev that he didn’t want to throw in the second half. That’s why he lost, and now there’s a possibility of Canelo stepping in to face the King, Beterbiev, if he wants to.
“I think so because of his size, length and reach,” Tarver said when asked if Benavidez would stand a better chance against Beterbiev than Canelo. “As Benavidez is much more aggressive, I could see him supporting Beterbiev with that jab. So, David has some s*** with him. So does Canelo, but I think just the height and reach will give Canelo problems,” Tarver said.
Benavidez is too easy to hit, and would try to go to war with Beterbiev. It would end badly for Benavidez, who was knocked out in his June 15 fight against former WBC light heavyweight champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk. Benavidez won that fight by a 12-round unanimous decision, but he looked like he had been run over by a car. Beterbiev would be all over Benavidez, nailing him with shots to the head that would tear down his weakened body.
